


No One's Here To Sleep

by cockabeetle, Kymopoleia



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Age Difference, Clones, Cuties, M/M, Sorta ?, time shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:48:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1957308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cockabeetle/pseuds/cockabeetle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Kymopoleia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What is it," Thad starts, sitting up straight. "About heroes, that makes them so sweet? You taste like strawberries and sugar and something else that I'm sure no three year old should taste like, and you don't like hurting people, yet are vain enough to be interested in your clone? What is it about heroes? I've never understood them."</p><p>Bart shrugged. "I think it's something in the water"</p><p>"Or in the diet coke?" Thad shakes the cup, and chuckles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One's Here To Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> the title is taken from a song of the same name, by naughty boy and bastille. Give it a listen if you want feelings.
> 
> also i don't know if that's actually how thad's thing works but it seems logical. and. i'm happy with it.
> 
> and, on the same note of thad's thing, if it seems confusing, just remember: if your time is slowed down, you have *more* time to do shit. so, you can move more. seem faster. if your time is sped up, you miss more and lose time. your age matches your timeline, so, for instance, if your timeline is sped up, you will seem to age faster. if your timeline is slowed to the point where the people around you do not seem to move, you will have an eternity to work with.
> 
> does that make sense?

One leg in front of the other, one fist moving too fast and a leg sweeping the same limb out from under the other. Ducking, jumping, running, fighting, moving fast. That's how speedsters fight. But, they don't usually go for another fight interrupting theirs. Maybe that's why, in the middle of Bart and Thad's fight, when Zoom and the Flash come barreling through, Bart pulls Thad do the side to ask him a serious ass question.

"Wanna get lunch while the old men bicker?"

Thad stares at him for a minute, then shrugs. "Fuck it, sure."

Bart starts in the direction of the nearest McDonald's, then pauses to turn to Thad. "I hope you have pockets, 'cause I don't."

Thad stares at Bart incredulously. "Why the _fuck_ would I have pockets?"

"For money. Duh."

"I don't carry money, I could just slow the rest of the world down and steal it."

"That's not nice, Thad. We have to buy them like respectable people"

"No we don't."

"I say we do. Don't wanna catch grampa's attention, do we?"

Thad groans and puts his head in his hands. "Fine, spend your money on something easily accessible through other means."

Bart hums, and grabs Thad's wrist. "We'll have to stop by the Garricks' house to get my money, but yes."

"Wait why would you take me to that place?" Thad's eyebrow goes up, because that's not somewhere he thought he'd be, ever.

Bart glances back at him. "Well, if you were gonna kill me, or my family, wouldn't you have done it already?"

That. Hadn't actually occurred to Thad. He groans and puts his head in his hands. "It never even *occurred* to me that I could kidnap your family and use them against you, I *can't* believe how stupid I was." He takes a deep breath and looks at Bart. "I'll do that some other time, thanks for the idea."

Bart blinked. Uh. Oops.

"Why are you still touching me?" he looks pointedly at his wrist.

Bart grinned. "I was gonna lead you to the house. Unless you wanna race...?"

Thad snorted. "If you think you can beat me," He gestures ahead of himself, and smirks.

Bart whoops, and speeds in the direction of Jay Garrick's place. That was where his room, and therefor belongings, were, after all.

Thad is right behind him, legs pounding the asphalt, grass, everything. He doesn't normally enjoy running, but now he does. He hates admitting it, but, that's how Bart is. He's fun, and he makes things, even simple, mundane things, fun. Too bad things can never be like this all the time.

Bart never gets to really race anybody else- Wally doesn't like him, and he's kinda slow anyway, and Grampa Barry won't race no matter what Bart tries to use as a bargaining tool. Jay, will, sometimes, but Bart has to slow down for him on a good day, same with Max Mercury. Maybe he should challenge Thad to races more often.

In the end, Bart wins, Thad a few feet behind. He, to give himself credit, does not pout, does not vow vengeance on the other speedster, he just. Accepts his loss.

Bart grins. "That was fun! We should do that more! Like, all the time!!"

Thad thinks for a comparatively long time. A lot of him screams that Bart's the enemy, that he has to be the one to end the Allen/Thawne feud, but. He elects to ignore it and nod, saying "Maybe," though he knows he probably won't.

Bart whoops again, before zipping inside and grabbing his wallet. He whips past Miss Garrick, and blows her a kiss before returning outside. "So, which fast food chain are we getting food from?"

Thad shrugs. "Do you remember that one burger place? It hasn't actually been started yet, but still. I've been craving it for years."

Bart whistles. "I remember! Isn't it set to start like, two years from now? I would love to eat there again--!"

Thad nodded. "If we haven't killed each other by then, let's go. If I'm in prison, promise to bring me a bag?"

Bart grinned. "I'll share it with you in Keystone."

Thad nods, a smile coming to his face. Bart grins widely back.

"So, since I'm craving burgers, McDonalds?" Thad suggests.

"That works!" Bart grabs his wrist, and runs towards the closest establishment with the yellow arches.

Thad tries to keep up with him, he really does, but eventually his wrist burns and he has to stop.

Bart slows down a little, and stops. "Are you okay??"

Thad is rubbing his wrist, standing still. "Fine."

Bart frowned. "You shouldn't lie. If I'm going too fast, tell me. I'll slow down."

"No, I can't say that. You don't get the whole pride thing we villains have going on, do you?"

"Pride? Like a lion thing?"

Thad sighs. "No, like, looking at your counterpart and thinking that you're good enough to maybe beat them one day. If I admit I can't keep up, that's like admitting I'm not as good as you. Think about your clone friend, Superboy. It would be like him admitting he is a cheap knockoff of Superman. Understand?"

Bart blinked. "But you are kinda better. You're smarter, aren't you?"

"Mind is nothing if I cannot catch up to you to implement it." He huffs.

"But you're smart so you could trap me."

"That doesn't always work, you know that."

"Well yeah. But I'm dumb so I'll fall for it a lot"

"Promise to fall for it more often?" Thad asks, knowing it's not normally a *thing* to ask their hero counterpart to allow themselves to be captured.

Bart smiles. "Okay!"

Thad nods and glances down at himself, then around themselves, before moving behind an alley. "I'm going to change into civvies, and I already know what you look like under that one piece, so feel free to change too." He says, then does the spinny thing to change into the hoody, jeans, dumb athletic shoes, and leather fingerless gloves he had been wearing before he switched into his suit.

Bart ducks into the alley, following suit. He's in a green hoody and a pair of jeans with dumb trainers, too. 

Thad eyes the hoody, and reaches for Bart before he pauses because, hey, green is one of *his* colors, and, that is kind of attractive. His own is black, but the shirt under it is green, and do are his pants and half the dumb shoes and the gloves. And. He stares really hard at the hoody's front pocket.

Bart's got his hands stuffed into said pocket. He's wearing a black shirt with a Nightwing symbol on it(to piss of Wally, mostly) and his shoes are yellow and red. He grins a little.

Thad looks up at Bart. "Was that on purpose? Are you messing with me?"

"The hoody? I've been told green brings out my eyes"

Thad swallows. "Green is. My color."

Bart nods.

He takes a deep breath and looks away, blood starting to rush up to his face.

Bart laughed quietly, and grabs his wrist again. He leads the other to that McDonald's, at normal-human speed.

Thad pulls his wrist out of Bart's grip again, putting it in his pocket. "Not that wrist."

Bart grabs the other one, and continues tugging him in the direction of food.

Well, props to Bart for accepting what happened and sorta just rolling with it. He follows, marveling at how different this part of the city looks when it's full of people and light, rather than the nighttime alternative he tends to enjoy more.

Bart hums to himself, bobbing and weaving through the crowd.

When they get to the fast food restaurant, Thad stares up at the menu. "What are you getting?"

"Big Mac!"

Thad wrinkles his nose, and looks back at the menu. "Okay."

Bart grins. Once they're up to order, he rattles off what he wants, making sure to slow it down to only slightly faster than normal human speed. He gets a Big Mac meal, with apple slices instead of fries. Apples are the shit.

Thad orders a pair of McChickens, a salad, and a milkshake, because it sounds good to him.

Bart also gets diet coke to drink, because Jay banned him from actual sodas.

 

Thad leans against a counter as he waits for the food, accepting the milkshake when they hand it to him, ahead of anything else.

Bart sips his diet soda, waiting for his food. It comes up in a few minutes, and he can't help the happy noise. Which is when the lady behind the counter asks if the two of them are twins.

Thad grabs the tray, and glances at Bart. He decides to fuck with her, and smacks Bart's ass, winking when he turns around. "Something like that."

Bart grins back at Thad, nodding a little. "S'complicated" He adds, giving her a wink of his own before following Thad to wherever he's taking their food.

The spot Thad picks is a booth, in the corner without windows. When he starts separating the food, he pauses to bite the heel of his hand to muffle his laughter.

Bart giggles himself, and picks up his apple slices.

"We really do look alike, don't we. I mean, it's to be expected, but if we weren't on opposite sides we could play some pranks unlike any other." He chuckles into his smoothie.

"I'll dye my hair if you will, maybe you can convince Jay and Max I'm not dumb"

"If you need me to convince them, then maybe you need to invest in becoming smarter. A tutor, perhaps?"

"My problem is impulses. I have a good brain, I think, I just don't use it before stuff happens."

"That's your problem, you think too quickly." Thad rolls his eyes and takes a bite of one of his sandwiches.

Bart nods. He nibbles on his apples, before grabbing his burger and chewing thoughtfully.

Thad stares at him, waiting for some response. "Nothing to say?"

"I agree with you?"

Thad blinks, taken aback. "Oh. Huh. Weird, I wasn't expecting that. Who will you have tutor you?"

Bart shrugs. "Tim is smart, but he's so _slow_."

Thad hums, an idea coming to mind, but he doesn't say anything, he waits. "And?"

Bart sighs loudly. "Wally's too slow, too, and Max and Jay are boooooring."

"Maybe. Maybe me?" He suggests tentatively.

Bart looks up, eyes wide. "But I thought you wanted to kill me? Wouldn't helping me stop reacting on impulses be counterproductive?"

"Well, I can compartmentalize." He says, as if that's all there is to the matter. There's definitely more, but he's not just going to admit that.

Bart blinks. "What?"

Thad takes a big gulp of milkshake instead of answering.

Bart frowns a little, and nibbles on his apples again.

"So. Uh. How are things? Other than me wanting to kill you sometimes."

Bart blinked and paused, thinking, before saying. "Max saved me from a train the other day."

"Why were you in a position where you could have been hit by a train? That one wasn't me."

"I had a really horrible training idea."

"You are not a clever man." Thad stares at Bart very hard, trying to figure out where their similarities went past physically.

Bart shrugged a little. "I thought it was a good idea, but Max obviously knew better."

"I could have told you that, and I have wished death upon you many times in hundreds of years. Partially because that's what I was made for, but still."

Bart frowned a little. "Kon was made to take Superman's place too, but he doesn't have any plans to do that. Or taking over for Luthor, either"

"That's different, he was only in his-" his breath catches before he says the next word "Tube for a few months, I was in mine _for hundreds of years_. There were no options for me, by the time I came out the only things I could focus on were you and how to kill you." He closes his eyes. "Him and I, we're not the same."

Bart nods. "Nobody's the same. But you don't _have_ to kill me. You're your own person, and it's all up to you"

Thad swallows, and, and air isn't coming very easily, and he sort of doesn't feel like talking. He's too old for this.

Bart blinks at him. "I won't blame you if you end up doing it, but it is your choice."

"I don't want to kill you." Thad finally says.

Bart smiles widely.

"But, I feel like I have to. It's. It's been a really, really long time. You think too quickly, you blink, and you miss a world. I don't have that option, and I don't think you understand that."

Bart nods a little. "I think I get it... and I still don't blame you. It's your choice."

Thad looks down at the salad. "It wouldn't be fair to the people you care about."

Bart nods. "Well, they should've expected it coming into this, it's what we sign up for when we do the whole superhero thing, isn't it?"

Thad snorts. "They don't sign up for it, you sign them up. It's all your choice to put yourself, and them, in harm's way." He plucks the cherry from the milkshake. "But, if I don't kill you, what would I do with myself? I'm a walking hazard, killer time management and knowledge of things that only probably come to pass." He pops the cherry in his mouth and stares at Bart. "And there's you."

"Yeah. But, maybe we could try working together?" He finishes his apples, and sips his drink thoughtfully. "I bet you and Tim would get along."

"Which hero is he? I know most of them are emotionally constipated but." He sips the milkshake.

"Robin

Thad whistles. "He's nice, seen him once or twice. Nice costume- but is the belt necessary?"

Bart shrugs. "I think he just thinks they look cool."

"You, on the other hand, don't have enough spots to hide anything in. And, since I have to match your outfit in everything but color palette, that's a problem for me too."

"We should invest in utility belts."

"I don't actually have any money here, the Thawne family doesn't accept me as part of them." He admits, grabbing a fork and starting on the salad.

Bart smiles, and pulls out his wallet. He offers Thad a twenty.

"No, don't." He pushes Bart's hand away. "I wasn't asking, it was just me letting you know that if you buy a belt, you should buy in bulk."

Bart nodded. He shoved the twenty at Thad anyway.

"Think of this as a thank you for not attacking Jay and Joan when you could've, earlier. And for having lunch with me."

"I probably won't attack them. It. Wouldn't be good." He takes the money, after. A long pause, and stuffs it into his jean pockets.

Bart grins. "Okay!"

Thad finished the first sandwich, then moved on to the salad, deciding to save the second for when he needed it. "Okay."

Bart smiles widely, sipping his drink again.

"So, let's talk. About something not involving me killing you or my tragic story. Messing with the girl up there was funny, are we going to take it further?"

Bart blinks. "Where would we be taking it?"

"I don't know. Pranks, mostly."

Bart grinned. "Are we gonna dye our hair and pretend to be each other cause if we are that would be awesome."

"I can do that, but your hair would be ruined if you bleached it. No, you can study, and then we can sit back and watch them freak."

"I could invest in a wig..."

"And you think you could go slow enough to keep a blonde wig?"

".......It'd be a great test... or training exercise, or whatever."

"Fine. You can be me. I usually just sit around, though, so I don't know how much good you can do there, unless." He smirks. "You could be Inertia too."

Bart nodded. "You'll be Impulse. Have fun with that, I'm not sure how I'm gonna do that but."

"You can always take a note from Onceler's book, just sing 'How Bad Can I Possibly Be' while in my suit. Steal candy from babies, do everything you can't in that red'n'white suit."

"I've always wanted to steal from a candy store."

"Go wild." He looks down at the ring he wears on his right ring finger, and glances over at Bart. "Do you change from a ring too? The spinny way?"

Bart grinned, and pulled his off, tossing it at Thad.

He caught it, and sent his own to Bart. "How many people do you think we can mess with by doing things in and out of suit?"

"Everyone we know, but I'm avoiding Zoom. Like, no."

Thad shuddered. "I think he wants to have sex with us, but mostly you. He's tried. Very hard. I'm not comfortable around him."

Bart shuddered.

Thad set the fork down in his salad, and took the final sip of his milkshake. And very, very quickly put the sandwich in his hoody pocket. "Are we going to switch today? Or? We could mess with people who think we're twins, then do the switching later this week. Or month."

"Mess with people, I still need to get a wig."

"We can get that stuff today. Do you mind that I'll be wearing your clothes, sleeping in your bed, using your shower," He trailed off, eyebrows going up at the possibilities and the things going unsaid. "You're on a team of some sort, too, aren't you?"

Bart nodded. "I don't mind if you don't. .....Where do you live, anyway?"

"Abandoned apartment building in the bad part of town. I rigged it with hot water, electricity, and AC. it's not a bad place, it's just out of the way."

Bart hummed softly. "My room's on the second floor of the Garricks' house."

Thad nodded. "Alright. Am I going to have to do some kind of good guy mission? Is there any way to do what they want without any training?"

"Mostly they just point me at the bad guy and tell me to tie their shoelaces together and piss them off"

Thad nods. He can do that. He's also gonna be meeting Superboy, the clone whom he connects with emotionally, and Robin, whom he is probably as smart as. Fun. "If Piper asks you if the roses are red, say that the roses are rosy as can be. He worries about me, because to him I'm not old enough to be who I am. Inertia, anything. He worries about you too, you know?"

Bart nods. "He told me to come to him if Barry or Jay can't take care of me anymore"

"You can set up the same system with him too. Roses are rosy, everything's fine. White roses, abuse, pink roses, sexual stuff, green, mental issues, blue, need place to stay. Well, any color but blue implies that you need somewhere to stay, but blue is needing a place and not being able to talk about it, or just straight up not feeling safe at home."

Bart nods a little. "Are we gonna tell him we're switching places too or are we just going to see how long it takes for people to catch on?"

"Of course we're going to tell him." Thad rolled his eyes. "I trust him with everything."

Bart nodded. "Are we going to him first? Or are we gonna pretend to be twins for a while?"

"We are twins. Basically. He knows almost everything, I told him _everything_."

Bart nods. "So he know's I'm technically like, 3 years old, too?"

"That one we had a lot of laughs over." Thad snorted and stole a sip of Bart's drink.

Bart didn't bat an eye, but he did grin a little. "Tim didn't believe me, at first."

"I wonder if anyone believes I'm hundreds of years old."

Bart shrugs. "I think Jay and Max do. Dunno about my teammates, though."

"Do you believe it? I'm not sure how long exactly it was, but it was atleast six or seven."

Bart nods. "I believe you."

Thad smiles and takes another sip of the diet soda. "How far do you wanna take the twin flirting thing today?" He notices an old man watching them, and reaches over, offering the soda straw to Bart.

Bart takes it, and grins. "S far as you wanna take it. I'm game for a just about everything"

Thad leaned forwards, across the table, and beckoned for Bart to do the same.

Bart did, grinning still.

"You might regret that, hatred wasn't the only thing old man Thawne felt for your family." He whispers into Bart's ear, catching the old man's eye as he does, and winks at him before he bites Bart's earlobe, gently and slowly.

Bart gasps a little, but his grin doesn't waver. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not big on grudges, and you're very easy on the eyes."

Thad pulls back slowly, lips pressing to Bart's cheek. "You're just saying that because we have the same face."

"Never said I wasn't conceited."

Thad snorted. "Well, glad you are. Because we are fucking gorgeous and I have been considering asking to make out with you for the past half hour."

"If we're being honest I kinda wanted to do that when we met but there was murder and Barry was in earshot."

"Well, I was mostly considering killing you then, and now I really can't wait for the fun stuff. Please tell me you're atleast a little bit into pain? Like not the hardcore stuff, but, I kind of am. I am a very old soul and I have had too much time to myself."

"I'll try anything, so long as I don't lose a limb or something."

"Don't worry, it would mostly be you doing stuff to me." He grins and pulls back more, and grabs Bart's face, pressing their lips together.

Bart kisses back, and sighs a little. He kinda didn't _want_ to hurt Thad(for various reasons) but...

Thad pulls back just a bit, a hint of confusion in his eyes. Their lips are still touching, but he doesn't make a move to continue. "Talk to me, what's wrong?"

"I don't _like_ hurting you."

"Not even when I've done something bad?" His tone is half playful, an attempt at a joke as well as an honest statement.

Bart shakes his head.

Thad sits back in his seat, eyebrows furrowed. "Never?"

Bart nods a little.

"Then I am glad we had this conversation as late as we did, atleast I got a year or so of my fun."

Bart nodded a little, smiling softly.

"What is it," Thad starts, sitting up straight. "About heroes, that makes them so sweet? You taste like strawberries and sugar and something else that I'm sure no three year old should taste like, and you don't like hurting people, yet are vain enough to be interested in your clone? What is it about heroes? I've never understood them."

Bart shrugged. "I think it's something in the water."

"Or in the diet coke?" Thad shakes the cup, and chuckles. "Want to go get that wig and kiss some more? And, believe it or not, I have a phone, so I can keep you updated on the prank. And," He winks. "Anything I do in your room. Give me your phone."

Bart tosses it, grabbing his coke and grinning a little. "Kissing sounds great. And the wig, too."

Thad sets his number up in it, and takes a quick selfie too. Then he sends Bart a text, a quick kissing emoji. "You should set up a folder for pictures of me, you'll be getting a lot."

Bart giggles, once he gets his phone back. Then pauses. "We don't have the same phone, we're gonna have to switch." He thinks for a moment. "And yeah, totally gonna do that."

"Or, I can upgrade to what you have. This phone is nothing I hold near and dear, just gotta transfer the data. Aka, one string of texts of pictures from this to that. What phone do you have?"

Bart hummed softly. "I've got... Whatever this thing is, Grampa bought it."

Thad studies it, then nods. "Okay, nice fucking phone. Galaxy S4, very snazzy. I can get one real easy."

Bart nods. "Okay."

"You wanna get the wig while I get the phone? There's a pair of places right around the corner that should have what we need."

"Okay!" Bart gets up, grabbing the tray and piling their trash on it. He winks at that old man as he wanders over to the trash can.

Thad waits for his- he doesn't know what to call Bart anymore- at the door, and when they leave it's with his hand on the small of Bart's back. There's a wolf whistle.

Bart giggles.

When they reach the wig shop, Thad kisses Bart on the cheek and waits until he's just outside the phone store to slow his timeline down to the slowest crawl he can manage. He goes into the shop then, whistling, and gets the phone- black Galaxy S4, with a green case and a stylus because why the hell not. He uses the company computer to bring the phone online, give it a number, and hide the file containing his phone so well that even he could not find it again. And when he leaves, he may have walked across the street to the clothing store and stolen a bag of clothing that's his size, and removed the tags and put them in a neat pile in this one screaming woman's purse, along with a pair of rings and a necklace, just so that she can deal with the stealing charges for making a kind employee cry.

Then he steals a wallet from some store with dark walls, filling it with the twenty he was given earlier and a bit of cash from each store. He then goes back to the wig store and waits outside, speeding time back up to what would be considered normal.

A lot of things happen at once.

Bart walks in at normal speed, and when he walks out he notices Thad standing there still. "Did you get the phone already?"

"Yeah, super easy. Cheap too." He smiles, motioning to his bag. "Got some stuff for us. You? Me? Who knows, I have clothing in the oh so limited shades of green, lime green, yellow, white, black, and red. That's literally it."

"That kinda sounds like my wardrobe, but I've got a bit of blue thrown in too. Mostly to piss off Tim."

"Tell me what pisses off Tim most."

"He hates it when I hit on his big brother. Like, a lot"

"Which one is his brother?"

"Nightwing."

"If I take the hitting on Nightwing thing too far, would you be mad or proud? And when you do the big reveal, hey, 'clone did it' is the best excuse in the book."

"I will not blame you, please get pictures."

Thad grinned. "I have seducing plans in mind already, I will take selfies with his dick."

"His name is Dick too."

Thad nodded appreciatively. "What all do I need to know? Like, about them."

"Don't mention the clone status to Supes, he's touchy. Megan can read your thoughts so don't think things loudly. Garfield goes by Gar and turns into animals. Tim is easily flustered and really attractive. Nightwing is our leader but is only like, three years older than us. Physically, I mean. And he used to make puns with words and if you manage to get him to do it then you have to get video evidence so I can prove it to Wally that he's not broken."

"After the big reveal, am I allowed to bond with Superboy about our shared status?"

"If he wants to. He probably will."

"I'm looking forwards to it, except for the mind one. Megan. I," He shudders. "Don't like people in my head. Not comfortable with it, not at all."

"Supes is the same way. She tries not to do it unless we're on missions, so keep your thoughts to yourself and try not to project anything."

"I have practice with that. What if I end up thinking about making out with you, and accidentally projecting it? Would that be hard to explain?"

"Well all they know about you is clone, and they know I have a tendency to day dream about.... stuff, so. Not really."

"So I can play it off as a daydream about who is technically myself? Great, I am honestly looking forwards to it now." He kisses Bart again. "Where to now? My place?"

"Yeah" He nods. Equal parts answer to both. He kisses Thad back, perfectly happy with the whole situation.

Thad reaches for Bart's hand as they walk, and he squeezes Bart's hand as he speeds up their timelines the fraction it takes to make them reach his home quickly.

Bart squeezes back, humming softly. "Hey, na na, Hey na na..."

When they get there, he slows their timelines back down. "Sorry about that."

"Huh?" Bart hadn't noticed.

"The timeline thing- did you know about that?"

A long pause. "Oh, I didn't notice."

Thad laughs. "All this time, I thought you knew. I mean, I guess it wouldn't make sense for you to know about the timelines or when someone messes with them but. Still."

"No, I knew about that, you were working with Zoom it's almost a given he'd teach you, I just didn't notice you used it."

"I use it a lot. All the time. It makes my life so much easier. Like walking from one side of town to the other and making it seem like a three minute stroll."

Bart glanced around. "Ah."

"I could teach you, but I'm not sure if I know exactly how. It has to do with how I see things."

Bart blinked. He tilts his head a little.

"I'm..." he thinks for a minute. "Object oriented. Focused. After so long with just myself, I know my mind inside and out, and because of that, I can focus on the speed force inside of me. I can manipulate it, use it on others. It's like imagining individual timelines drawn in the green lightning of my speed force, and then picking the setting on that timeline that I want them to work with. It's easier to do one person at a time, so I normally just work on my own. And, since the timeline I use is so vivid and bright, all I have to do to move fast as you or the Flash is slow down my timeline." He take a deep breath.

Bart blinks. ".........Yeah I can't do that. So you have literally no reason to think I'm better."

Thad shrugs. "It's what I use the timelines for that makes it less admirable. But, if I were to ever clean up, would that be a valuable asset to a hero?"

"Oh yeah. It could make all the difference in a team mission."

"Maybe, I could help sometime? I don't actually have any issues with this world besides what I grew up with, being mostly you. So."

Bart nodded. "You could join the team if you can convince them you won't sell them out or something. Or kill them in their sleep."

"Sell them out, probably not, kill them in their sleep, no."

Bart nods. "But it's them you have to convince, not me, and I'm the one who you've been antagonistic to."

"But you also trust me in your home around your family, because I have no interest in harming them now that I am attempting to channel the centuries long vendetta for your blood into something sweeter."

"Yes."

"So will that give me brownie points for them?"

"Probably. Or I'll get yelled at for fraternizing with the enemy."

"But being the enemy has done me no good, I don't want to be like this anymore. Earlier today, I had half a mind to just tell you that if I wasn't going to trying to kill you, that you should kill me. I have lived a very long time, and I don't want to kill you."

"Well I never really wanted to hurt you in the first place. And I kinda like how today has ended up, so far"

Thad nodded, dropping his bags and stepping forwards to hug Bart. "I like today."

Bart grinned. "Same."

Thad kissed his nose. "Are you going to try to learn killer time management with me?"

"Emphasis on trying. I am a horrible student. The train incident is proof of this."

"Well, I can slow us down. You will have all the time in the world, and rewards when you speed us up at all."

"Okay."

Thad winked at him. "I can't wait. And, what should we do now? Play teacher and student? Something about selfies? Kissing? Beds?" he squeezed his arms around Bart. "Your choice."

"Kissing and beds sounds really great, actually."

Thad slows down his timeline to pull Bart to the bed, to take off his hoody, to speed his timeline back up in time to pull them back so that he's under Bart, head around the pillows and faces close together. He kisses Bart again, then moves the wrist that hurts out from under the other speedster.

Bart blinks, and finds himself grinning down at Thad widely. He glances a bit at Thad's wrist, and can't help the little twinge of guilt.

Thad is sure the wrist is sprained, maybe broken, but he can still use it, so he ignores it, left hand twisting into Bart's hair and kissing him passionately.

Bart kisses back, fingers tangling in Thad's hair.

His back arches into Bart, and he groans, mouth opening to let Bart in more. He doesn't know how far this will go, but he doesn't want it to stop either. He wants Bart everywhere at once on him, he wants to do as much as he can before something goes wrong, because he, for all the sweet kisses and talk, isn't one of the good guys. He wants to be, but people like him aren't allowed to change, they're allowed good things only to break them.

Bart rolls his hips, moaning into Thad's mouth. Today has been probably the best day in forever and he is really pleased with everything that has been going on. Like, yes please.

Thad wraps his legs around Bart's hips, and he gasps into Bart's mouth when their hips rock together at just the _right damn angle_

Bart groans, and he can't keep from arching into Thad, moaning. He pulls one hand free, he's not sure where he's gonna put it but he wants, needs, to move something.

Thad keeps his hips grinding up into Bart's, their lips locked, and his left hand twisted in his long, long brown hair. Or is it red? It's somewhere in there, and it's soft and feels nice when he pulls it. His right hand is to the side, clawing at the sheets even though his wrist _hurts like fuck_ and brings tears to his eyes, and he needs to get _the fucking leather glove off soon_.

Bart opens his eyes, and sees the tears, and sits up immediately. "A-are you okay? What's wrong?"

Thad groans at the loss of contact, biting his swollen bottom lip. After a few seconds, he sits up, and takes the opportunity to claw at the right glove, and try to get it the _fuck_ off, but he _can't_ and he's just claws at the huge ass buckle and now he's panicking.

Bart gets the hint, and manages to get it off within a few seconds. He's kinda frantic and he might have started crying.

The wrist is a bit swollen, and dark, and the second Thad sees it he tugs it out of Bart's grip and hides it under his shirt and leans into Bart because _fuck no wonder it hurts_.

Bart holds him, and wipes his eyes and can't keep from sniffling. He feels horrible he shouldn't have grabbed Thad earlier, why did he think that was a good idea.

"Don't feel bad" he mumbles. "I couldn't keep up. Didn't use the timelines."

Bart sniffles, and wipes his face again. "I-I should've known better."

"No, not your fault. I'm not fast enough." He squeezed Bart with his left arm, face buried in his shoulder. "Not your fault."

Bart sniffled. He hugged Thad a little tighter and wiped at his eyes again.

The squeeze puts pressure on his wrist which he'd, stupidly, put between them, and he can't stop the intake of breath and the stiffening of his back because, he can't control himself when it comes to pain. It's the one thing he doesn't have much experience with, the one thing he can't just imagine.

Bart pulls back immediately, and he's started crying in earnest now and wow he feels like a shitty person why did he think that was a good idea.

Thad is crying now too, and he slowly pulls his hand out of his shirt and just _moving_ it hurts, and he leans back into Bart with the wrist not between them, and presses his face into his neck and just _cries_ because _fuck_ it hurts, and he _can't_.

Bart cries too, and he's sort of sobbing into Thad's hair, and it's about now that he remembers that the only person to see him since Gramps and Zoom started fighting was Joan, for about five seconds, and everyone is probably worried, and that just makes him cry harder.

Part of the reason Thad is so upset about his wrist is because he doesn't know how to deal with it, he doesn't know how to wrap it or- clean it? He doesn't know what to do, and Bart is sobbing, and he starts sobbing too because he's scared, and they're just a mess. He, he decides after about ten minutes that Piper can help, so he slows down his timeline, and goes to his new phone to send him a text asking for advice on crying speedsters and broken wrists, preferably the latter before the former. Typing with his left hand on a new phone sucks, and he's still crying, but it's worth it when he's back around Bart and he gets instructions on how to wrap and ice it, that he should kiss Bart better, and an added note that Piper will be giving him a roll of condoms and a basket of candy, not in that particular order. Also that the Flash is worried about Impulse, they need to talk to him.

Reluctantly, Thad pulls back, swallowing back salty tears of pain.

Bart is a complete mess and he can't get himself to calm down. He's trying, it's just not working.

Thad kisses him, hard, trying to get him to calm down enough to tell him what they need to do.

Bart is caught off guard by the kiss, and he manages to calm down. He rubs his face, hiccuping.

"Texted Pipes." Thad gets out, wiping away his own years. "Told me how to wrap it and that Flash needs to know where you are."

Bart fumbles with his phone. And then pauses. "If I tell him with you he'll freak and probably come to save me" He wipes his face again. "I can wrap it, do you have the supplies or should I make some?"

"I sprained my ankle fighting you a while back, I still have the bandages from that." Thad kisses Bart again.

Bart kisses back, and mumbles an apology against his lips. "Where are they?"

"Next to the bed, middle shelf, next the. Um. Lube." He disentangled himself from Bart, blushing. "Uh."

Bart blushes a little, but goes to grab them, putting the lube on top of the dresser for later. "What should I tell Gramps?"

"That you are helping a friend with a broken wrist."

Bart nods, typing that in while you ready the bandages. They're not as clean as you'd like, but they'll do.

Thad smiles, and offers his wrist, slowly, as if speed will make it hurt any less. He speeds through the next part, and ends up leaning against Bart with a wrapped up wrist. "Thanks."

Bart nods a little. Barry sent him five all-caps texts with variations on 'what which friend'

"What are you going to tell them?" Thad asks.

Bart thought a moment. "I'm not sure. I really don't have many friends inside the city so it's really difficult to try and lie about it, and if I tell him 'Inertia' he'll freak out and think I'm kidnapped and/or brainwashed. Again."

"Maybe just send him a selfie with me and my broken wrist and say things are complicated?"

Bart nods a little, and sits so he's next to Thad and sorta still holding his hand, and takes the selfie. The text says 'it's complicated and i might have gotten a boyfriend'.

Thad smiles. "So that's what this is?"

Bart gives him a hopeful look. "Maybe?"

"I'd like that. As long as your uncle doesn't kill me."

"He's not born yet, so that won't be a problem. It's Gramps and Cousin you gotta worry about. Jay and Max, too."

"Ah, okay. I think all this crying is messing with my head." He kisses Bart. "D'ya think Barry, Max, Jay, or Wally'll kill me?"

"Barry might question me a lot and threaten you but not likely, same goes for Jay and Max. Wally's weird, and he's dating the daughter of an assassin so, that's up for debate."

"So trying to kill you earlier isn't going to get in the way of Wally's opinion of me, much? That's something."

"Yeah. Hitting on his best friend might, though."

"Oh. Uh. I'm not going to do that now that we're, this." He gestures between them with his good hand, bad one still firmly pressed to his leg.

Bart nodded a little. "....Same, unless Wally's there, cause you would not believe the colors his face turns.

"I will only hit on Dick if we're together." He promised.

"Dick is Wally's best friend."

"I understand that. I was just saying, it's a good way to upset two people at once. Not that I *will*, but I might. You gave me this weapon, babe." Thad pauses. "Uh."

Bart giggles. "We should tag-team him later. I know he has a thing for redheads, but everybody loves twins."

Thad kisses Bart again, hard and slow. He's happy again, and could definitely go for continuing what they were doing earlier. He hears Bart's phone buzz obnoxiously, and he groans.

Bart pick it up, and there are sev-ei-ten. texts from Barry, all variations of 'what the hell kid' and 'what no don't do that'

Thad reads them, snorting. "Take a selfie of me kissing you in response."

Bart tugs him into a kiss, soft and sweet, and takes the selfie quickly. The caption just says 'you're not my dad i can do what i want'.

Thad leans down and puts his head on Bart's chest. "Wanna sleep and ignore his texts?"

Bart grins, and drops his phone on the floor, only glancing down to see if it's in one piece.

Thad hums happily, falling back so his head lands on the pillows. "Take off my shoes and pants, please?" He asks, pouting.

Bart does, and strips off his own hoody, shoes, and pants. The Nightwing shirt is actually pretty big and nearly reaches his knees.

Thad wraps himself around Bart, careful to leave his right arm splayed out and away from them. He feels comfortable, sore, safe, and kind of happy. He only usually feels sore, so that's a definite plus of a superhero boyfriend.

Bart cuddles up against him, and can't help the contented little sigh. Barry calls Bart's phone, but well, no one answers.

Thad kisses Bart before starting to drift off into unconsciousness.

Bart is asleep in seconds, snoring softly.

Thad sleeps a long time, head pressed into Bart's shoulder, and when he wakes up, he can see through the dirty windows that there is the soft light of morning pouring in.

Oops.

Bart is still asleep, snoring softly. Barry has called five more times and left 15 texts.

Thad nudges him on the shoulder, and kisses Bart's jaw. "C'mon. Wake up."

Bart mumbles, and blinks a couple times. "Mm?"

"We have to be awake. S morning."

Bart sighs, and sits up, stretching a little. He leans over the side of the bed, to check his phone. He blanches a little.

"Are they gonna be mad at us? Me?"

"I think Gramps started crying."

"Oh no." Thad hums.

Bart sends a text, simply saying 'sorry, i fell asleep'.

Thad checks his own phone, and there's one text, from Piper, asking if things are better. He responds that they are, but his wrist aches.

Barry calls him. Bart winces, but answers the phone. And promptly holds it a good foot away from his ear as Barry yells at him.

Thad takes the phone from him, and waits for the yelling to stop before he presses it to his ear. "Hello."

Barry opens his mouth to continue, but pauses. "...Thaddeus?"

"Yes. Me. Hi."

"....What did you do?"

"Well, my wrist is broken and both me and Bart are wearing clothes, so obviously not what we expected to be doing today. Er, yesterday."

Barry makes a noise similar to a car crash.

Thad laughs. "Are you alright? Did shock kill you?"

Barry coughed a few times. "When did you two.....?"

"We were fighting yesterday, but your fight interrupted ours, so we spent the day together and now we're dating."

Barry pauses, and Bart snickers a little. "For the record, we had Mcdonalds and ended up discussing stuff" He added, loud enough to be heard over the phone.

"We discussed a lot of stuff. Like, the fact that I do not wish to kill Bart."

"I never wanted to hurt him, either" Bart added. Barry hummed softly.

"I know it is foolish to ask for your blessing, but can I have it?" Thad asks, reaching over to twist his and Bart's hands together.

Bart leans against Thad, a little. Barry sighed. ".....Alright, just... Don't hurt him. You either, Bart."

"Thank you, Barry. When do you want him home?"

"He has time with the team scheduled for tomorrow, he'll be staying with them for around a week."

"Would it be too much to ask to go with him?"

".....We'd have to brief the team, first. It would take time for them to trust you. Best to wait a bit"

"Aright, I will wait. There's no guarantee they will trust me at all."

Barry hummed. Bart pouted a little. Then he had an idea.

Thad glanced up at Bart, and blinked. "Oh no, what's that look you've got? Have you had an idea?"

Bart nods. "Bye, Gramps. See you tomorrow." and hangs up on Barry's protest.

He grins a little wider. "We could switch, and at least that way they know you won't kill them when we reveal"

"Oh, so we'll still switch? I can't wait."

Bart nods. "You have dye, right? O did you need a wig too?"

"Of course I have dye, pretending to be you was one of the things I was looking forwards too most."

Bart nodded, grinning. "Wanna switch now and see how well we do?"

"Sure, don't forget to rob that candy store. I like sour things."

"Ooh, me too. I like anything with sugar, really, but sour's the best."

"Get me some sour stuff, please?"

Bart nods, grinning.

"Thank you." He kisses Bart's nose.

Bart giggles, and kisses Thad's cheek. He picks up the bag from yesterday, and holds up a blond wig. "I think this's about the right color."

"You bought me a wig? How sweet."

Bart snickered. "S'for me, Thad. I need it more 'n you do."

Thad blinked. "Oh, oh, yeah. I'm blonde. I forgot."

Bart snickered.

"S nice, you'll look great."

Bart grins, and nods a little. "You'll look good brunet, too."

"Would anyone believe you cut your hair?"

"Yeah, totally."

"Will they be sad to see you didn't?"

Bart shrugs. "Not really. I usually only cut it if it gets in my eyes too much."

"Well," Thad reaches up and runs his fingers through Bart's bangs. "It's getting there."

Bart shrugs. "S'not there yet."

"Well, what about in a fight, when your hair gets in your eyes and you're unable to move it?"

Bart shrugs. "That's what goggles are for."

Thad rolls his eyes. "Whatever you say, Bart."

Bart grins.

Thad kisses him again. "We'll have to get out of bed eventually. Unless, he smiles and kisses Bart again. "Whatever you choose."

Bart blushes, a little. He leans into the kiss. "We can move in a few minutes..."

"Or we can move in an hour. We never did get to anything last night, sorry about that."

Bart shakes his head. "Not your fault." Bart pauses. "We'll have to explain how I have the wrist, unless we let Gramps in on it?"

"We'll let him in on it, I don't think he would even accept any other answer."

Bart nods. "Let's hope he can keep his mouth shut, especially around Batman."

"I'll get to meet the bat?" Thad's eyes widen.

"He's kinda our like, adult supervisor, with Canary and Red Tornado."

"Black Canary?"

"Yep. She's our combat teacher and therapist."

"She is a goddess among mortals and I would be honored to be trained by her."

Bart grinned. "She's really nice, too. She doesn't let anybody else laugh when you fail."

"She sounds amazing and I can't wait."

Bart giggles. H pulls his hair up with one hand and tries the wig on.

Thad kisses him again. "What do I taste like? Are the others used to kissing you?"

"You taste like... something kinda sour, but theres sweet stuff underneath. And not really, I like kissing people's cheeks, but I've been trying to not do that so much."

"I like kissing cheeks." Thad admits. "I like kissing."

Bart nods enthusiastically, and has to adjust the wig a little.

Thad stretches, back arching into Bart."Okay I know we'll have to get out of bed eventually but I'm not looking forwards to it."

Bart nods again. "Me either."

Thad closes his eyes. "Can't we sleep? Not get out of bed? I could slow down our timelines, we have plenty of time."

Bart snuggles up against him. "That sounds really great actually."

So Thad leans his head into Bart's shoulder, and concentrates on the speed force. Then he smiles and kisses Bart's collarbone. "We have time."

Bart grins. "Yay."

"We have as much time as we need."

Bart moved, so he was kissing at Thad's jaw. "Perfect."

"What should we use all of our time to do?"

"I have a few... ideas."

Thad kisses Bart. "Thank you."

Bart smiles into the kiss. "No, thank you."

Thad nibbles on Bart's lips, then he reaches up and tangles his hands in Bart's hair. "What will we do?"

Bart giggles a little, and thinks a bit. "Well... We could just keep doing this... Or we could do what we were doing earlier, too."

Thad rolled them over so that he was on top of Bart, and hummed, leaning down to give him yet another kiss. "We could do that."

Bart grinned. "Sounds fun" Bart wrapped his arms around Thad's shoulders.

Thad trailed kisses up Bart's face, then down to his neck, his hips being rolled into Bart's.

Bart's own hips bucked, and one hand tangled in Thad's hair.

Thad groans, and he hid his face in Bart's neck. "How far are we gonna go?" He asks.

"I don't think going all the way would be a good idea just yet, but we can go as far as you want"

Thad nods, and he squeezes his left hand between them to grope for and then squeeze Bart's junk. He rocks his hips against his arm and Bart, sucking on a spot he found on Bart's shoulder.

Bart gasps, hips bucking. "Sh-shit!"

Breaking the contact of his lips against Bart's skin, Thad gasps as he finds the right angle for himself, and goes for it, hips rocking against it perfectly.

Bart cries out, hips bucking.

Thad finds Bart's lips to kiss him as hard as he can while his orgasm blazes through him.

Bart comes seconds after, kissing back hard.

Thad breaks the kiss, breathing hard. After a few seconds, he starts laughing. Quietly.

Bart can't keep the grin off his face.

"S was good. Thanks." He kisses Bart again.

Bart giggled, and kissed back. "I enjoyed that, a lot"

"We gonna do it more?"

"Do you wanna?"

"I wouldn't ask if i didn't want to."

"Good, cause I want to too"

Thad kisses him for what is probably the millionth time, and rolls off. "Okay, I'm not gonna be too fuzzy if this dries." He groans, slipping his thumbs under the waistband of his underwear, and tugging it down. It sticks, and he winces.

Bart wrinkles his nose, and yanks his shirt off, showing a lack of boxers. 

"...Well, at least it will probably come out."

Thad snickers. "We hope."

Bart wrinkles his nose. "I paid good money for a shirt Tim was supposed to see, it better come out."

Thad rolls his eyes. "I can replace it."

Bart huffs. "But I liked this one" He was whining. He didn't care, though.

"I can replace it with one that looks just like it, but without the stains."

Bart shakes his head. "Not the same:

"You'll still have the shirt, it just won't be for wearing in public."

"Would it be for wearing in bed?"

Thad smirked and kissed Bart. "Now you're catching on."

"Do I look good in it?"

"You look better without it."

Bart giggled.

Thad dove in for another smooch. "You're cute."

Bart grinned. "Not as cute as you" He booped Thad's nose.

Thad scrunched his nose up. "I'm not that cute. I'm cute in a demented way."

"You make really great expressions, and you look cute like, all the time"

"But you're always excited and bouncy and happy. Or huffy and pouty. Or sad and panicky. And you're cute."

"Well we have the same face so you're cute by default, and your angry face is way cuter than mine"

"Only because I make it more often."

Bart giggled.

"Am I gonna have to giggle when with your team?"

"...Yeah, and smile, and whine, and generally be very emotive"

"So I should study emoticons and become them?"

"......That might work, actually..."

"Okay. 'm not outside much, just don't be as emoticon-y as me."

Bart schooled his expression into an impassive one, furrowing his eyebrows a little.

"Good."

Bart grinned.

Thad kissed his nose.

Bart laughed, smiling.


End file.
